Handcrafted from the land of culture and festivals – Bengal
Bengal is a synonym for rich culture, academics, artistry, and festival. A land, constituting present-day’s West Bengal, Assam, and Bangladesh, united by emotions but divided by borders. Bengal has given National anthems to two countries i.e, ” Jan Gana Gana” for India and “Amar sonar Bangla” for Bangladesh, both penned by the great poet, Shri. Rabindra Nath Tagore. Finesse and artistry are not only marked by songs, poems, festivals, or world-famous Rashogolla. This artistic greatness is embodied in everything that originates from Bengal.
Taking a look into the lane of craftsmanship of Bengal, we come across beautiful sarees, that are hand-woven by the masters of arts. To name a few, Dhakai Jamdani, Tant, Baluchori saree, and many more. The intricate detailing and finesse of 6-yard sarees, have helped Bengal to establish its name in the textile Industry.
Beautiful handwork from Bengal isn’t restricted to saree, it passed on to the metals as well. In Bengal, one can find an immense degree of detailed and finely designed jewelry and sculptures crafted from metals like gold, silver, brass, and zinc as well. Metal craftsmanship of Bengal has existed since the pre-historic time and the art of authentic craftsmanship have passed on to the current generation.
Goldsmith or Silversmith, famously known as “Swarnakars”, is a caste group, specializing in working on metal and giving them intricate design and detailing. The word Swarnakar is the amalgamation of two words, the first being “Swarna” meaning gold, and “kar” means worker. In this era of machines and the need for fast production has clouded the skills of Swarnakar. La marque-M honors the handwork of swarnakar. So, every piece of art from the collection of “OCEAN and “QUEEN BEE” , is handcrafted by the swarnakars of Bengal.
Goldsmith, also known as babus, burns the midnight oil, to give shape to the yellow metal, and turn it into a beautiful authentic art of jewelry, that can be passed on to generations to come. Swarnakars from the house of La marque-M, are experts in their field and have handcrafted each piece of gold and diamond jewelry, be it Anchor Diamond Tennis Bracelet from the Ocean collection or cute dolphin diamond pendant.
From Rough metal to polished Jewelry
Through the ages, the journey of crafting valuable jewels from metals has taken many turns. In the earlier times, Goldsmith worked near fireplaces and bellows, smaller than those used by a blacksmith. We millennials, can’t stand without a fan for a minute, swarnakars, be it any weather, spend hours in the heat and humid atmosphere so, to make the beautiful jewelry, we adorn it with pride. Metal is melted by putting the pieces in the crucible and blowing through the “phunki, a blowpipe made of Brass. During the process of melting, some other alloy is added to the metal, to get the desired gold karat. Once the metal was prepared, the jewelry fabrication process came next in step. This process included joining segments, soldering, parts in their particular position as per the designs.
Swarnakar’s eternal part of Jewelry making process
With the constant change in industry and improvement in tools and techniques, the fireplaces, bellows have been replaced by melting furnaces. Creating wax mold by hand has been replaced by computer-aided designing and 3D wax mold. In the fast-changing environment and process to manufacture large numbers in a shorter time, we have lost the charm of hand-crafted jewelry. In the era of machines, we are just replicating the copies of designs and manufacturing in huge numbers. Whereas, in handcrafted jewelry, every design is unique in its way. Despite all hustle about machine-aided manufacturing of jewels, no ornament is finished without being hand touched and finished by our Swarnakars. Gems stones are studded by hand, to give jewelry a nice finish. Imagine the level of concentration required to set every single gemstone by hand one after another, even if the numbers go into thousands.
La marque-M is all about handcrafted Jewels
La marque-M launches its first two collections, namely “Queen Bee” and “Ocean”. House of La marque-M has focused on craftsmanship. Thus, every piece of our collection is manufactured in-house. To present our client with the best minimalistic jewelry, crafted in 14kt gold, we have used the right amalgamation of today’s technology and craftsmanship of Karigars, from BENGAL. In the days, to come, we will continue to showcase and present to you the craftsmanship of Bengal in the forms of Diamond bracelets, designer rings, gold and diamond earrings, and various other collections. Our in-house swarnakars craft the jewels, keeping the need of the client in mind. Thus, every gold and diamond designer jewelry of La marque-M is stylish fashionable, and light-weighted.
La marque-M is all in to support the swarnakars from Bengal and bring the community back to life.